SILIVRI, Turkey (Reuters) - Syria's main political opposition group in exile agreed on Saturday to attend internationally sponsored peace talks, and said for the first time three rebel fighting forces also wanted to take part.

The agreement by the Syrian National Coalition - and the chance of fighters backing the process - will be a boost for Western supporters of the "Geneva 2" talks seen as the most serious global effort yet to end the near three-year conflict.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government was not immediately available to comment on the prospect of rebel militia representatives playing a role at the negotiations to end fighting that killed more than 100,000 people.

National Coalition spokesman Louay Safi told Reuters the Soldiers of the Levant, the Syrian Revolutionaries Front and the Mujahideen Army all wanted "to have some representation within the delegation" at the talks on Wednesday in Montreux.

It was not immediately clear what role they might play.

Rebel brigades had previously rejected Geneva - demanding the removal of Assad before talks. Their support is seen as critical if any deals have any chance of being rolled out.

All three are established forces, through restrictions on journalists in Syria makes it impossible to give independent estimates of their size.

A fourth fighting group, the Islamic Front - thought to be bigger than the other three combined - was still deciding whether to attend, Safi added.

Al Qaeda-linked rebels, increasingly involved in the fighting, have shown no interest in a political process.

The fractured National Coalition itself has little influence on the ground in Syria.

Major Isam el Rayyes, spokesman of the Syrian Revolutionaries Front, confirmed his group was now interested.

"The Syrian Revolutionaries Front and two other major fronts want to be represented at Geneva but we will not send our brigade leaders," he told Reuters.

There was no immediate comment from the other two.

Coalition discussions to appoint a delegation were set to go into the night. Sources said meetings with the Islamic Front were also taking place in Istanbul.

"BRAVE CHOICE"

Western powers had pressed the opposition to commit to the talks and on Saturday France welcomed the Coalition's decision, vowing to make sure the discussions ended up setting up a transitional Syrian government with full executive powers.

"This brave choice, despite the provocations and acts of violence by the regime, is a choice to search for a peaceful solution," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Saturday.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called it "a courageous vote in the interests of all the Syrian people who have suffered so horribly under the brutality of the Assad regime and a civil war without end."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he welcomed the participation of the opposition groups.

"I look forward to the opposition's expedited formation of a delegation that broadly represents the diversity of the Syrian opposition, including women," he said in a statement.

The Coalition decision had been delayed repeatedly as more than 40 members threatened to leave the body, and eventually shunned the vote.

One Coalition member, Khaled Khoja, told Reuters on Saturday that the vote was illegitimate and that his group was considering a formal challenge.

Out of those that did take part, 58 Syrian National Coalition members voted to attend and 14 voted against, said the group's media office. Another three abstained it added.

"It was a tough vote," the head of the Coalition's media office, Khaled Saleh, told Reuters. The Geneva 2 process would be a "political and media battle, and on balance we decided that we must fight it alongside the war on the ground," he added.

Syrian officials have announced a delegation to attend the January 22 talks, though they dispute the invitation letter's focus on setting up a transitional authority, saying the priority is "to continue to fight terrorism" - a phrase they use to describe Assad's battle with increasingly radical rebels.

(Additional reporting by John Irish in Paris and Louis Charbonneau in New York; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Lisa Shumaker)

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - A bomb threat left in a Brazilian airport caused a TAM Airlines flight to make an emergency landing and briefly closed the airport in the Amazonian city of Manaus on Saturday, five months before the country hosts the World Cup soccer tournament.

A note that said a bomb was onboard TAM flight 3540 was found in a bathroom at Brasilia's Juscelino Kubitschek airport, airport officials said.

That flight, which had already left Brasilia bound for Boa Vista, evacuated passengers via emergency slides when it landed on the runway at Eduardo Gomes airport in Manaus.

The Manaus airport had reopened at 4 p.m. Brasilia time (1800 GMT) after no explosive device was found on the plane, a spokeswoman for the Infraero national airport authority said. She also said no other airports were affected.

TAM spokeswoman Fernanda Feres said passengers on the affected plane had been rebooked on another flight leaving for Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima state, on Saturday. TAM is the local unit of LATAM Airlines Group.

Federal police told Globo News they suspect a former TAM employee may have written the note left in Brasilia although investigations were ongoing.

Feres said the company had no comment on the investigation.

TAM cut some 780 employees late last year, reducing its workforce by 4 percent in an effort to boost profits despite high fuel costs and a weaker local currency.

Manaus is a popular destination for tourists exploring the Amazon rainforest and one of 12 cities hosting World Cup soccer matches in June and July.

LONDON (AFP) - A 16-year-old British schoolboy on Saturday became the youngest person ever to trek to the South Pole, his team said.

Lewis Clarke celebrated with a bowl of pasta with fresh parmesan cheese, his first real meal since setting off on the gruelling 702-mile (1,129-kilometre) journey from the coast on Dec 2.

The teenager and his guide, Carl Alvey, travelled across the Antarctic on skis, unsupported except for a few food drops and braving temperatures as low as minus 50C, according to Clarke's website.

"I'm really happy but mostly relieved that for the first time in 48 days I don't have to get up tomorrow and drag my sled for nine hours in the snow and icy wind," Clarke said in a statement carried by the British media.

"Today was really hard, the closer I got to the Pole the slower I went, my legs had had enough.

"But now I'm here and I've had some spaghetti bolognaise and I am sitting in a heated tent."

The pair arrived at the South Pole at 1800 GMT and after tucking into his meal Clarke called his relieved parents back home in Bristol, in western England.

"Coming home will be a bit weird for him, I'm sure, after seven weeks of almost complete solitude," his father Steven Clarke told the BBC.

"But it'll be a few days off, a party and then onto GCSE revision," he added, referring to the national school exams that the young adventurer will have to take in May and June.

Clarke, who raised money for Prince Charles' charity for young people, the Prince's Trust, will be back in Britain on January 24 when he hopes his record will be verified.

Guinness World Records said the record for the youngest person to trek overland to the South Pole without the use of dogs or motorised vehicles was set by 18-year-old Canadian Sarah Ann McNair-Landry in January 2005.

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(From left) George Lucas, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm, unveil a statue of Star Wars character Yoda to officiate the opening of Disney's Lucasfilm's new animation production facility, the Sandcrawler in Singapore. -- AFP/Stefanus Ian

Rango won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film, while Pacific Rim has grossed more than US$400mil (RM1.28bil) worldwide.

Kennedy, 60, joined Lucasfilm in 2012 after having worked as a producer on more than 60 films, including four of the highest-grossing films in history: Jurassic Park (1993), E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull (2008) and The Sixth Sense (1999).

The eight-time Oscar nominee says she will carry on working as a producer. One of her projects is the highly-anticipated seventh Star Wars film, expected to be released next year (2015).

It has been reported that there will be a new Star Wars film every year, starting from next year (2015), with the seventh film being the first of a trilogy. Origin stories will dominate the slate.

These will sit alongside a series of standalone, spin-off movies, focused on individual characters. Names mentioned in previous reports for possible spin-offs include Yoda, Han Solo and Boba Fett.

Asked if she was concerned about the possibility of the spin-offs distorting the story threads laid down in the original saga, she says that the universe created by series creator George Lucas was large enough to contain "endless opportunities" for new content.

"George was so clear as to how that works. The canon that he created was the Star Wars saga. Right now episode seven falls within that canon. The spin-off movies, or we may come up with some other way to call those films, they exist within that vast universe that he created," she explains.

But there are rules to follow.

"There is no attempt being made to carry characters (from the standalone films) in and out of the saga episodes. Consequently, from the creative standpoint, it's a roadmap that George made pretty clear."

Lucasfilm Singapore is now fully housed in its new seven-storey building at the Fusionopolis high-tech park. All staff from the previous facility at Changi Business Park have moved into the new space, which features a 100-seat theatre and state-of-the-art digital production facilities and a public garden.

The building is named Sandcrawler, after the mining machines seen the Star Wars films.

There are now more than 400 employees at Lucasfilm Singapore, the majority of whom are artists. There are 130 Singaporeans employed there, with the rest coming other countries in the region.

Since its founding in 2005, Lucasfilm Singapore has contributed to projects such as the animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, while ILM Singapore was involved in several instalments of The Pirates Of The Caribbean movies, the Transformers trilogy, the Iron Man franchise, The Avengers (2012) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). — The Straits Times, Singapore/Asia News Network

DIRECTOR Pierre Andre had The Notebook in mind when he came up with the script for Muka Surat Cinta. As a fan of love stories, the idea of forsaken love has always intrigued the actor-turned-director.

Muka Surat Cinta tells the story of married couple Putra (played by Mikael Andre) and Luna (Nina Iskandar). Despite Luna's best efforts to make their marriage work, Putra feels that things are going nowhere. Luna also faces another challenge in Nurul (Atikah Suhaime), a girl who has a crush on Putra and will stop at nothing to win his heart.

"In Muka Surat Cinta, I want to focus on the message that we're always searching for love. It's something I want to explore with the audience, that perhaps the person you're looking for is just right in front of you," said Pierre, 28, during a phone interview.

Later, Putra comes across a secondhand book and becomes obsessed with it. In the book, there is a love quote written by its previous owner.

"Putra finds a quote that really moves him in a novel terpakai. The journey begins when he goes on a search to find the person who wrote the quote."

Pierre had initially written the script for Muka Surat Cinta as an independent short film. And instead of Muka Surat Cinta, the original title was Perempuan Muka Surat Tujuh.

"When I pitched the script to (production company) Metrowealth, they asked me to expand the story to make it more suitable for a mainstream audience. I didn't make a lot of changes to the original script. I think the only major change was the film title."

The film also sees Pierre collaborating with his younger brother Mikael. Previously, the two worked together on the horror film Highland Tower.

"Sometimes, it's quite hard because he's young and there is a lot for him to learn. Still, I'm really glad that he got to embody the part really well."

Pierre described his forlorn hero Putra as "the strong, silent type". "There are some things that Putra struggles to say. Eventually, he learns that sometimes, you can convey more by not even saying anything at all."
n Muka Surat Cinta opens nationwide on Jan 16.

With two Hercules movies out this year, we look back at the legendary hero's screen appearances over the years.

HERCULES battles Hercules this year, with Kellan Lutz playing the demigod in Renny Harlin's now-in-theatres The Legend Of Hercules and Dwayne Johnson taking on the Greek hero in Brett Ratner's Hercules: The Thracian Wars, based on the Radical Comics miniseries, on July 25.

Of course, Hercules – the Roman name for the Greek hero Heracles – has been immortalised on film for more than 50 years, with similar characters hitting the screen since silent-movie days.

In one guise or another, he's fought ancient-world despots and sorcerers, mythological beasts and the attractions of femmes fatale. He's ridden chariots into battle, horses through treacherous passes and ships to high adventure – often on budgets that wouldn't pay for a minute of Clash Of The Titans.

Yet, whether accomplishing the 12 Labours or leading villagers into rebellion, whether fighting anachronistically in the gladiatorial arena or voyaging with the Argonauts, Hercules on-screen is a hero for the ages. Or at least for the past several decades.

Steve Reeves

"If you want something visual/that's not too abysmal/We could take in an old Steve Reeves movie." So sang the pansexual Dr Frank N Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, alluding to the campy appeal of Hercules (1958) and Hercules Unchained (1959), starring bodybuilder Reeves. The 1947 Mr America and 1950 Mr Universe became a gay icon playing the bare-chested hero in these two Italian-made epics, each released in the United States a year after their European debuts.

Lou Ferrigno have played Hercules in the past.

In the former, Hercules joins the Argonauts to retrieve the Golden Fleece, and wins the love of Princess Iole (Sylva Koscina). In the latter, he is mystically mesmerised by Omphale, Queen of Lydia (Sylvia Lopez), but eventually regains his memory and saves his captive wife.

Reeves would go on to do a slew of such mythological mishmashes, playing Goliath in Goliath And The Barbarians (1959), Phillipides in The Giant Of Marathon (1959), Aeneas in The Trojan Horse (1961) and Romulus in Duel Of The Titans (1961), among others. But it was his Herculean labours that launched a fantasy-epic subgenre colloquially called ...

Hercules, the Disney version (voiced by Tate Donovan).

Sword-and-sandal films

After the Hercules movies became hits, Italian studios and American distributors released more follow-up films than Hercules had Labours.

Called "sword-and-sandal" or "peplum" films – after the short tunics/overskirts men wore in them – dozens of such films battled it out at the US box office into the mid-1960s. At least 19 starred Hercules, played variously by bodybuilders including Mickey Hargitay, Reg Park, Mission: Impossible's Peter Lupus (credited as Rock Stevens) and Kirk Morris (nee Adriano Bellini).

Like Godzilla in that era's giant-monster movies, Hercules sometimes teamed with others of his ilk, such as Samson, Goliath, Ursus and Italy's homegrown Hercules, Maciste. In fact, a few Hercules movies actually starred one of those interchangeable others – and were retitled and dubbed here to star Herc.

Hercules And The Black Pirate (1963) was the Samson movie Sansone contro il corsaro nero, for instance, while Hercules And The Masked Rider (1964) was the Goliath picture Golia e il cavaliere mascherato.

Animated Hercules

In Walt Disney's Hercules (1997), its title character voiced by Tate Donovan, the young demigod must become "a true hero" in order to join his brethren on Mount Olympus.

Trained by the satyr Phil (Danny DeVito), vexed by the evil Hades (James Woods, who steals the show) and beloved by the conflicted Megara (Susan Egan), he battles the Titans, a hydra and other menaces – and even has time to belt out a few songs.

Hercules In New York (1969). Billed as Arnold Strong, a 22-year-old Arnold Schwarzenegger in his first film teams up with a pretzel vendor, rides a chariot through Times Square, buys lunch at the Automat and gets his voice dubbed by another actor.

The Incredible Herc

In between The Incredible Hulk TV series and TV movies, the two-time Mr Universe Lou Ferrigno starred in the 1983 Italian picture Hercules and its 1985 sequel, The Adventures Of Hercules.

Sorbo the Lean

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (syndicated TV, 1995-1999) was a Hercules for the millennial generation. The hero as portrayed by Kevin Sorbo was lean and green, not a bacchanalian bodybuilder, and as concerned about social equality and the preservation of Mother Earth as he was about protecting villagers from monsters and capricious gods.

With his most frequent sidekick, Iolaus (Michael Hurst), he often encountered the warrior princes Xena (Lucy Lawless), who would spin off into her own syndicated hit. Leading up to Sorbo's series were five 1994 TV movies – all co-starring Anthony Quinn, by Zeus! — Newsday/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

"I think people don't look for Bond girl roles. There are new 20-year-olds who want that part and I want them to have it. I want to play woman parts now.

"I am lucky to be in Banshee. Yes, she is pretty, if you think so, but she is also a tough woman, a mother. She is strong sexually and physically ... and fearless."

Giving as good as she got in the first season, Carrie ends up in prison in the second season.

"I couldn't wait to go to prison this season.

"One, because of my fancy outfit, which is just so comfortable. And I like that she just snaps, like 'that's enough'."

Just like in Season One, Carrie has another brutal fight scene in prison, this time with a female prisoner.

"Prison fight? I love it. I don't mind being ugly doing it. I like this 'mama bear' unleashing. Frankly, I believe I would do the exact same thing if someone tries to hurt my family.

"I am a peaceful, loving person, and I have to be provoked – when my family's life is in danger ... What am I saying: We all have it in us (to defend our family). I am not special; there is a banshee in all of us."

OVER the past 18 months, TV's Community has had to deal with a public dissing of the sitcom by its biggest star, Chevy Chase, who eventually left the show, and the unceremonious dumping of creator Dan Harmon, a mad genius who used social media once too often to throw his temper tantrums.

The behind-the-scenes hoopla may have plagued the show – but it also may have saved it.

"In a weird way, the drama behind the stage was sort of keeping Community on people's minds," says Jim Rash, who plays the community college's flamboyant principal. Rash returns for the fifth-season, as does Harmon, whose comeback once seemed less likely than a flood-free rainy season on the East Coast.

The survival of Community might seem inexplicable, considering its low ratings – even in its best season, it only ranked 97th in the United States among prime-time shows. But it kept getting a reprieve because the struggling network didn't have anything else to put in its place. There's also motivation for Sony, the company that produces the show, because Community is just four episodes shy of 88, the unofficial total that makes a series viable for the highly profitable world of syndication.

Harmon's Lazarus act is more of a head-scratcher. This is, after all, a man who spent part of his hiatus comparing NBC president Bob Greenblatt to Darth Vader and describing his Sony bosses as inhuman.

Much of the credit goes to series star Joel McHale, who worked as chief negotiator over a series of lunches. Then there's the fact that the fourth season, under the guidance of David Guarascio and Moses Port (Just Shoot Me, Happy Endings), failed to capture what made Community so special: The ability to place relatable characters in a unique, often surreal world every week.

Under the temporary team, it was a pleasant sitcom. Under Harmon, it was the edgiest, most unpredictable programme on television.

"Like with Breaking Bad or Arrested Development, you need that where-it-came-from place," says McHale, whose character, the self-centred Jeff Winger, returns to school this season as a teacher rather than a student.

"We had some really good stuff last year, but it did not have the direction that most other seasons had."

The sitcom, which only got a 13-episode pickup this season, will get back to pushing the envelope with a trip into David Fincher's imagination, a Logan's Run tribute and a follow-up to the classic Dungeons & Dragons episode.

Harmon seems well aware that his dedication to pop culture minutiae may alienate the masses whose idea of high-brow wit is grandma passing gas. He just doesn't care.

"I would rather die than make bad stuff for people, because I'm a terrible dishwasher and a terrible lover and a terrible pet owner and this is my only recourse to go to bed at night and feel like I did anything of merit," he says.

"That fills me with emotions that sometimes get expressed in ways that you may read about in third-hand blogs and stuff, but overall, it allows me to fail upward."

And if fans wail that the new batch of episodes don't have the same beautiful insanity of the early years? Well, that's fine, too.

"If I had not gone back, the worst-case scenario is me spending the next 30 years wondering what would have happened if I had gone back," Harmon says. "If I do go back, the worst-case scenario is one crappy season. Who cares?" — Star Tribune/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

> Community was previously shown in Malaysia on Fox (Astro Ch710). As of press time, there is no news on when the new season is premiering.

The panellists from the popular fashion series on E! Channel say it like it is.

THE 71st Golden Globes Awards, which was held earlier this week in Los Angeles, kicked off Hollywood's awards season.

This can only mean one thing: All eyes are on what celebrities are wearing on the red carpet.

And no one is having more fun than the panel at E! Channel's popular programme, Fashion Police.

Star2 met up with the panellists – Joan Rivers, Kelly Osbourne, Giuliana Rancic and George Kotsiopoulos – as well as executive producer Melissa Rivers on Monday in Los Angeles after the taping of the special Golden Globes edition of Fashion Police which will be aired tonight in Malaysia.

First off, Kotsiopoulos wants viewers to know that the panellists harbour no ill intent towards any celebrities when they talk about them on the show. "We critique the outfits, never the celebrities," says Kotsiopoulos, who is a stylist by profession.

Now that that has been clarified, we are dying to know who they thought had the worst outfit at the Golden Globes.

Paula Patton at this week's Golden Globe Awards in Los Angeles.

Joan, the most vocal as well as comical of the group says: "Paula Patton! She looks like she had a big white bird s**t on her dress. We'll see this kind of dress on the runway worn by models who are very tall and thin, and they look great. Then a normal person, like Paula Patton, puts it on, she looks like an a****le. The dress is terrible!"

It is this kind of snarky and hilarious commentary from Joan and her three co-hosts that has made Fashion Police one of the top rated shows on E!.

While some celebrities (like Cameron Diaz) hate the show, others have come up to the panellists to say how much they love it – even though they might have ended up on the worst dressed list on Fashion Police.

Kotsiopoulos remembers one fan. "Drew Barrymore came up to me and I was worried because we'd just rip her on the show about her dress. But she said, 'You guys are right, that dress did look bad on me'. I love her for saying that."

Even designers have confessed their love for this guilty pleasure programme. "At the Met Gala, Tom Ford and Valentino came up to tell me how much they love our show. That's just amazing," says Rancic.

To celebrities who gets offended when they are ripped on the show, Osbourne has this to tell them: "If they can't take a joke about themselves, they are in the wrong industry. This is Hollywood!"

> Fashion Police airs every Tuesday at 8pm on E! (Astro Ch 712). Tune in for a special edition of Fashion Police: Golden Globes tonight at 8pm.

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KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak used kangkung as an example of items which have reduced in price as the vegetable is widely consumed by Malaysians.

"I like to eat kangkung, you all like to eat kangkung. As such, I gave an example which everybody eats. If I use quail as an example, only certain people eat it.

"The example should not be ridiculed by anybody because I gave the example on the principle of supply and demand, which decides the prices of some of the food commodities that are not subject to price controls," Bernama reported him as saying at a dinner organised by the Malaysian Indian Muslim Congress on Thursday.

Najib said the vegetable was only one example of food items used by the public, which he used in his speech in Kemaman, Terengganu on Jan 12.

Netizens picked up on his remark and the humble vegetable, also known as water spinach, soon became a trending topic as well as the butt of many jokes and gimmicks.

Popular it may be in cyberspace and social media, it isn't the best selling vegetable despite its cheaper price.

Point of interest: Malaysians making fun of the kangkung comment on T-shirts.

Coffee outlet Artisan Coffee, in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, offered a cup of coffee to customers in exchange for a bundle of the vegetable yesterday.

Some wet markets experienced good sales but at hypermarkets, that was not the case.

A vegetable vendor at the SS2 wet market said his stock of kangkung was sold out in the morning, and confirmed that the price of the vegetable had come down.

"Previously, we charged RM2 per 200g of kangkung. It is now 400g for the same price," he added.

However, it was a different scenario at the hypermarkets. At the AEON in 1-Utama, piles of kangkung were still available around noon at RM1.20 for 300g.

Housewife Mei Ling, 53, said she preferred other vegetables for her family.

"I do not consume kangkung because it is known to have some health effects.

"It does not matter to me if the price has been reduced," she said, while adding that she preferred to buy broccoli, cabbages and organic greens.

Another customer, who did not want to be named, said she did not like kangkung because it had a cooling effect.

For Y.P. Ng, 63, a retiree, said kangkung was a very small part of his diet.

"Thus the price drop does not affect me," he said

Restaurant manager Kelly Ow, 32, said sales of their kangkung belacan dish had not improved despite the drop in the vegetable's price.

"The dish was not highly popular to start with, and even now many customers prefer other vegetables," she added.

JOHOR BARU: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will look into the expenses of another four ministries soon.

It would start next week with the ministries of Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing, PAC chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed said.

This will be followed by the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas) under the Communications and Multimedia Ministry.

"Next month, the PAC will examine the Education Ministry again on expenses spent on school security as well as the police force on their asset management where we will focus on the loss of weapons issue," he said during the Thaipusam celebrations at the Sri Subramaniam temple in Jalan Kolam Air here yesterday.

On a separate matter, the Pulai MP said he hoped that Malaysians would not get distracted by their differences but embrace them instead.

"Malaysia is a democratic and multicultural society. We should not cross the line of other people's religion, and learn to show respect to each other," he said.

He added that leaders should take time to visit the different places of worship, especially during festivals such as Thaipusam, so that they could observe for themselves the rituals and practices of other devotees.

PETALING JAYA: It's close to the Chinese New Year and many in the community will usually shop for a new set of wheels.

But this time, many are holding their purchases and bookings what with the new National Automotive Policy set to be unveiled on Monday.

A check at various car showrooms yesterday showed people "window shopping" with the announcement in mind. First-time car buyer Ahmad Faizuddin Abu Bakar, 26, said that he was looking to purchase a hybrid car but will wait as the policy is expected to involve hybrid and environmentally-friendly vehicles.

"There have been a lot of offers from car dealers especially during the Chinese New Year season but I think I will wait before deciding.

"I hope the Government will give some incentives or exemptions for hybrids and electric cars," he said at the Nissan showroom in SS19.

Another prospective car buyer, Sherrina Salleh, 34, said a hybrid's spare parts are much more expensive compared to conventional ones. "I have always wanted a compact car which is fuel efficient and the best choice for me is to get a hybrid car. It will be better if there were more incentives for those who want to buy hybrid cars," she said.

A Honda sales adviser said hybrid cars were becoming increasingly popular and lots of enquiries were being received. "Most of them are frequent travellers and they choose hybrid models as they are more environmentally friendly and fuel efficient," he said.

Proton sales adviser Hazimi Omar said that sales of cars have been positive so far. "The most popular model for our branch is the Saga FLX because of its low price but we also have quite a large number of orders for the Exora model from those with larger families,'' he said.

Among others, the NAP is expected to re-introduce the end-of-life vehicle policy, which was scrapped in 2009.

It is also expected to attract more foreign direct investments into the auto industry by promoting energy-efficient vehicles.

The NAP is also expected to contain the roadmap to place Malaysia as the hub for Energy Efficient Vehicles (EEV).

NEW DELHI, Jan 18, 2014 (AFP) - The wife of Indian minister Shashi Tharoor, found dead in a luxury hotel after accusing her husband of being unfaithful, suffered an "unnatural, sudden death", a doctor who performed an autopsy on her body said Saturday.

"More tests" are needed to determine the cause of Sunanda Pushkar's death and the final results will not be known for two to three days, Sudhir Gupta, one of three doctors who performed the autopsy, told reporters.

He added Pushkar's body had "some physical injuries", but it was unclear whether they were related to her death.

The body was expected to be cremated later in the day, local media reports said.

Tharoor found his wife dead in a luxury hotel room Friday, just two days after she accused him on Twitter and in other media of having an affair with a Pakistani journalist, Mehr Tarar.

"There were no signs of any foul play," Tharoor's press assistant Abhinav Kumar told reporters. "She seemed to be sleeping in a normal way but later it was found she was dead."

Tharoor was admitted Saturday to the same top government hospital where the autopsy was performed on his wife's body after complaining of "general chest discomfort", a hospital spokeswoman told reporters.

But his test results were normal and he was released. TV footage showed him leaving the hospital looking ashen.

Pushkar, 52, a Dubai-based entrepreneur before marrying Tharoor in 2010, had been taking medications for various illnesses, including tuberculosis, according to local media.

In one of her last tweets, which later appeared to have been removed, she wrote: "Whatever is destined to happen will happen, will go smiling".

Indian social media users called it the first "death by Twitter", with the drama being played out over the micro-blogging site.

The death of Pushkar, described by friends as the "life of any party", sent shockwaves through New Delhi's social set.

The couple appeared deeply in love when they wed and were a glamorous pair on the social scene, but the rumour mill had been abuzz for months with talk of marital problems.

Indian newspapers splashed the death on their front pages. "Soon after Twitter war, Sunanda Pushkar found dead in Delhi hotel," said the tabloid Mail Today in a headline.

Events began unfolding late Wednesday when a curious messages appeared on the Twitter account of the suave thrice-married Tharoor, a former high-flying UN diplomat, novelist and key government spokesman.

They showed private exchanges purportedly between the 57-year-old minister (@shashitharoor) and Pakistani journalist Tarar (@mehrtarar), in which she professed her love for him and he said his wife had discovered their relationship.

Tharoor, known as "Mr Twitter" with over two million followers, quickly responded by saying his account was "hacked", but Pushkar spoke to newspapers saying she sent the messages.

She also raked up a corruption scandal related to the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament that almost wrecked Tharoor's career in 2010 and led him to resign from the cabinet.

Both Pushkar and Tharoor had denied any wrongdoing.

Seeking to draw a line under the Twitter row, Tharoor issued a joint statement Thursday in which he blamed unauthorised tweets and distorted media reports for the "unseemly controversy".

The statement said the couple were "happily married".

Cricket-loving Tharoor and his wife, the mother of an adult son from a former marriage, had been staying at the hotel since Thursday while work was being done to their home.

Television anchor Sagarika Ghose said she spoke to Pushkar on Friday, saying she appeared depressed and was sobbing uncontrollably.

The Pakistani journalist whom Pushkar accused of "stalking" her husband strongly denied having a relationship with the former UN diplomat.

Reacting to Pushkar's death, Tarar tweeted: "I'm absolutely shocked. This is too awful for words. So tragic I don't know what to say. Rest in peace, Sunanda."

Tharoor, a thrice-married father of grown sons, spent three decades in the UN where he was beaten to the post of secretary general by Ban Ki-moon.

The author then quit the UN and entered Indian politics in 2008 as a ruling Congress party MP.

New Delhi (AFP) - The wife of prominent Indian minister Shashi Tharoor was found dead Friday in a five-star hotel room after she exposed his alleged adultery with a Pakistani journalist on Twitter, media reports said.

The Press Trust of India, quoting unnamed police sources, said the minister reported his wife's death to police. It was not immediately known how Sunanda Pushkar had died.

Pushkar's death came a day after Tharoor issued what he called a joint statement from the couple saying they were "happily married and intend to remain that way".

The statement added that "Sunanda has been ill and hospitalised this week and is seeking to rest" and asked for the media to respect the couple's privacy.

The alleged affair surfaced late on Wednesday when a curious series of messages appeared on the Twitter account of the suave thrice-married human resources minister, seen by his two million followers.

They showed private exchanges purportedly between the 57-year-old (@shashitharoor) and Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar (@mehrtarar), in which she professed her love for him and he said his wife had discovered his affair.

Tharoor quickly responded by saying his Twitter account had been "hacked," but wife Sunanda spoke to two newspapers saying that she was the author of the messages.

"Our accounts have not been hacked and I have been sending out these tweets," Sunanda told the Economic Times, adding to the Indian Express that she "100 percent" stood by the messages.

The Pakistani journalist strongly denied having an affair with the former high-flying UN diplomat.

Tharoor had to resign from his first ministerial post after revelations that then-girlfriend Sunanda had been given a free stake in a new Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket team.

Opposition parties said the stake, reportedly worth up to $15 million, was for Tharoor's behind-the-scenes services in putting together a consortium that bought a franchise in his home state of Kerala.

Both had denied any wrongdoing.

In the statement, Tharoor said the couple were "distressed" by the controversy created by "unauthorised tweets" and denounced "distorted accounts of comments allegedly made by Sunanda in the press."

JAKARTA, Jan 18, 2014 (AFP) - The death toll in days of floods and landslides in Indonesia has climbed to 23, an official said Saturday, as torrential rain pounded the capital.

Families in Jakarta neighbourhoods waded through murky chest-high flood waters, clutching their belongings, while others were ferried to safety in rubber dinghies, local TV stations showed.

"Five people have died in Jakarta so far from drowning or electrocution in the floods," National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nurgoho told AFP.

More than 4,300 people in the capital have been displaced by the floods, which also worsened the city's notorious traffic jams.

Meanwhile the death toll rose to 18 late Friday in the northern part of Indonesia's Sulawesi island, which has suffered flash floods and landslides. Two people there are still missing, Nugroho said.

The Sulawesi deluge, which ripped more than 100 homes from their foundations, is receding as the downpour there eases, Nugroho said, adding that three-quarters of the 40,000 people initially displaced there have returned to their homes.

Indonesia is regularly hit with deadly floods and landslides during its wet season, which lasts for around six months.

Environmentalists blame logging and a failure to reforest denuded land for exacerbating the floods.

NEW DELHI, Jan 18, 2014 (AFP) - The wife of Indian minister Shashi Tharoor, found dead in a luxury hotel after accusing her husband of being unfaithful, suffered an "unnatural, sudden death", a doctor who performed an autopsy on her body said Saturday.

"More tests" are needed to determine the cause of Sunanda Pushkar's death and the final results will not be known for two to three days, Sudhir Gupta, one of three doctors who performed the autopsy, told reporters.

He added Pushkar's body had "some physical injuries", but it was unclear whether they were related to her death.

The body was expected to be cremated later in the day, local media reports said.

Tharoor found his wife dead in a luxury hotel room Friday, just two days after she accused him on Twitter and in other media of having an affair with a Pakistani journalist, Mehr Tarar.

"There were no signs of any foul play," Tharoor's press assistant Abhinav Kumar told reporters. "She seemed to be sleeping in a normal way but later it was found she was dead."

Tharoor was admitted Saturday to the same top government hospital where the autopsy was performed on his wife's body after complaining of "general chest discomfort", a hospital spokeswoman told reporters.

But his test results were normal and he was released. TV footage showed him leaving the hospital looking ashen.

Pushkar, 52, a Dubai-based entrepreneur before marrying Tharoor in 2010, had been taking medications for various illnesses, including tuberculosis, according to local media.

In one of her last tweets, which later appeared to have been removed, she wrote: "Whatever is destined to happen will happen, will go smiling".

Indian social media users called it the first "death by Twitter", with the drama being played out over the micro-blogging site.

The death of Pushkar, described by friends as the "life of any party", sent shockwaves through New Delhi's social set.

The couple appeared deeply in love when they wed and were a glamorous pair on the social scene, but the rumour mill had been abuzz for months with talk of marital problems.

Indian newspapers splashed the death on their front pages. "Soon after Twitter war, Sunanda Pushkar found dead in Delhi hotel," said the tabloid Mail Today in a headline.

Events began unfolding late Wednesday when a curious messages appeared on the Twitter account of the suave thrice-married Tharoor, a former high-flying UN diplomat, novelist and key government spokesman.

They showed private exchanges purportedly between the 57-year-old minister (@shashitharoor) and Pakistani journalist Tarar (@mehrtarar), in which she professed her love for him and he said his wife had discovered their relationship.

Tharoor, known as "Mr Twitter" with over two million followers, quickly responded by saying his account was "hacked", but Pushkar spoke to newspapers saying she sent the messages.

She also raked up a corruption scandal related to the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament that almost wrecked Tharoor's career in 2010 and led him to resign from the cabinet.

Both Pushkar and Tharoor had denied any wrongdoing.

Seeking to draw a line under the Twitter row, Tharoor issued a joint statement Thursday in which he blamed unauthorised tweets and distorted media reports for the "unseemly controversy".

The statement said the couple were "happily married".

Cricket-loving Tharoor and his wife, the mother of an adult son from a former marriage, had been staying at the hotel since Thursday while work was being done to their home.

Television anchor Sagarika Ghose said she spoke to Pushkar on Friday, saying she appeared depressed and was sobbing uncontrollably.

The Pakistani journalist whom Pushkar accused of "stalking" her husband strongly denied having a relationship with the former UN diplomat.

Reacting to Pushkar's death, Tarar tweeted: "I'm absolutely shocked. This is too awful for words. So tragic I don't know what to say. Rest in peace, Sunanda."

Tharoor, a thrice-married father of grown sons, spent three decades in the UN where he was beaten to the post of secretary general by Ban Ki-moon.

The author then quit the UN and entered Indian politics in 2008 as a ruling Congress party MP.

New Delhi (AFP) - The wife of prominent Indian minister Shashi Tharoor was found dead Friday in a five-star hotel room after she exposed his alleged adultery with a Pakistani journalist on Twitter, media reports said.

The Press Trust of India, quoting unnamed police sources, said the minister reported his wife's death to police. It was not immediately known how Sunanda Pushkar had died.

Pushkar's death came a day after Tharoor issued what he called a joint statement from the couple saying they were "happily married and intend to remain that way".

The statement added that "Sunanda has been ill and hospitalised this week and is seeking to rest" and asked for the media to respect the couple's privacy.

The alleged affair surfaced late on Wednesday when a curious series of messages appeared on the Twitter account of the suave thrice-married human resources minister, seen by his two million followers.

They showed private exchanges purportedly between the 57-year-old (@shashitharoor) and Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar (@mehrtarar), in which she professed her love for him and he said his wife had discovered his affair.

Tharoor quickly responded by saying his Twitter account had been "hacked," but wife Sunanda spoke to two newspapers saying that she was the author of the messages.

"Our accounts have not been hacked and I have been sending out these tweets," Sunanda told the Economic Times, adding to the Indian Express that she "100 percent" stood by the messages.

The Pakistani journalist strongly denied having an affair with the former high-flying UN diplomat.

Tharoor had to resign from his first ministerial post after revelations that then-girlfriend Sunanda had been given a free stake in a new Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket team.

Opposition parties said the stake, reportedly worth up to $15 million, was for Tharoor's behind-the-scenes services in putting together a consortium that bought a franchise in his home state of Kerala.

Both had denied any wrongdoing.

In the statement, Tharoor said the couple were "distressed" by the controversy created by "unauthorised tweets" and denounced "distorted accounts of comments allegedly made by Sunanda in the press."

JAKARTA, Jan 18, 2014 (AFP) - The death toll in days of floods and landslides in Indonesia has climbed to 23, an official said Saturday, as torrential rain pounded the capital.

Families in Jakarta neighbourhoods waded through murky chest-high flood waters, clutching their belongings, while others were ferried to safety in rubber dinghies, local TV stations showed.

"Five people have died in Jakarta so far from drowning or electrocution in the floods," National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nurgoho told AFP.

More than 4,300 people in the capital have been displaced by the floods, which also worsened the city's notorious traffic jams.

Meanwhile the death toll rose to 18 late Friday in the northern part of Indonesia's Sulawesi island, which has suffered flash floods and landslides. Two people there are still missing, Nugroho said.

The Sulawesi deluge, which ripped more than 100 homes from their foundations, is receding as the downpour there eases, Nugroho said, adding that three-quarters of the 40,000 people initially displaced there have returned to their homes.

Indonesia is regularly hit with deadly floods and landslides during its wet season, which lasts for around six months.

Environmentalists blame logging and a failure to reforest denuded land for exacerbating the floods.

An appeal judge has called for measures to be taken to avoid future situations in which an offender has served his jail term, or a good part of it, before his appeal is heard.

Justice Chao Hick Tin made the remarks in his written judgment, published yesterday, in the case of three national servicemen who went on a stealing spree at a police station.

Saiful Rizam Assim, Muhammad Erman Iman Tauhid and Muhammad Yunus Aziz were sentenced to between seven months and one-and-a-half years by a district court in April last year.

The prosecution team appealed, arguing for a sentence of reformative training instead.

Justice Chao, who said he had been "troubled" by the case, said he felt they should have been sent for reformative training. But he eventually decided against it as it would amount to "double punishment" for the trio. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Some of the music — and antics — of today's artistes leave a bad taste in your mouth.

The record-industry score-keepers at Nielsen SoundScan recently confirmed something many music fans had probably already assumed: Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines – the cheeky disco-funk jam with the controversial, nudity-enhanced video – was the biggest-selling single of 2013, with 6.5 million copies sold.

The tune, nominated for record of the year at this month's Grammy Awards, spent 12 straight weeks atop Billboard's Hot 100, longer than any other song last year; that video, meanwhile, has racked up nearly 300 million views on YouTube.

However singular its domination, though, Blurred Lines was just one of a number of hits that reflected the return of raunch to pop music after several years in which propriety was a more dependable pose.

In 2012, you couldn't turn on the radio without hearing Carly Rae Jepsen's squeaky-clean Call Me Maybe or We Are Young by the cuddly New York trio, Fun.

Adele topped album sales that year and the year prior with her old-fashioned 21. And let's not forget – or maybe let's do – the self-consciously virtuous folk-rock revival that made mainstream stars of Mumford & Sons and the Lumineers.

Robin Thicke may be well-known for his sexy songs, but his 2013 album was deemed a little crass.

By comparison, 2013 came in like a wrecking ball, to quote the year's most important vulgarian, Miley Cyrus, who set off a national debate about the boundaries of taste with her thrillingly lewd appearance alongside Thicke (and a giant foam finger) on the MTV Video Music Awards.

Pop always circles back to sex; it's low-hanging fruit ripe for the picking when innovation runs short, the economy tanks or a generation of kiddie-culture stars come of age.

But for listeners who count on artistes to push limits, last year's wave of obscenity felt like a course correction after the conservatism of the early 2010s.

Cyrus pushed plenty. In wake of the VMAs, she extended the naughty streak with the clip for her chart-topping power ballad Wrecking Ball – it depicts a naked Cyrus astride just such an implement of destruction – and her album Bangerz, on which the former Disney Channel star raps slyly about replacing a man with a battery pack.

For Cyrus, 21, the twerking and tongue-wagging served as a rupture with her tween-idol past.

Ditto Justin Bieber, who spent much of the year sketching a map of grown-up misbehaviour, with unsavoury incidents involving a mop bucket, a Brazilian brothel and a woman reported to be a porn star.

Man-boy: Justin Bieber got himself into a lot of adult problems last year. — AFP

Yet as unified as they seemed in their determination to titillate, Miley and her peers each had their own agendas.

With Blurred Lines (and other off-colour songs from Thicke's album of the same name), the 36-year-old singer's goal was the exact opposite of Cyrus'. He was using sex to age himself down and shake off the harmless adult-contemporary vibe he'd accrued thanks to his ultra-sensitive 2007 hit Lost Without U.

You got the same feeling from Bruno Mars' Gorilla and its video, which starred Freida Pinto as a tequila-pouring pole dancer. Here was the kindly balladeer of Just The Way You Are in a racy rebranding effort.

More pointed bawdiness came from Kanye West, whose album Yeezus felt at times like an explosion of psycho-sexual politics, and Lady Gaga, who for her song Do What U Want enlisted R. Kelly for a little bump 'n' grind at the intersection of desire and celebrity.

Kelly lent his imprimatur to several other stars in 2013, including Bieber (in the steamy PYD) and Mars (in an even more lascivious remix of Gorilla). The veteran R&B star put out his own album too, Black Panties, which after a string of decorous retro-soul discs heralded his re-embrace of the kind of outsized bedroom boast with which he'd made his name.

"Tonight," he sang, "you're lying with a sex genius."

And then, perhaps boldest of all, there was Beyonce, who shocked the world in December first by releasing a self-titled album on iTunes with no advance warning, then by peppering the record with far more sex talk – much of it unprintable here – than she'd previously given us reason to expect.

The superstar's aim seemed to be providing fans with a glimpse into her tightly guarded private life. One highlight of her album is Drunk In Love, a bass-heavy duet with her husband, Jay-Z, about the liberating joy of married sex.

Counter-examples, of course, pointed toward other themes. Eminem scored the year's second-biggest-selling album with The Marshall Mathers LP 2, where the closest thing to a sex song is Love Game, a hateful screed against an unfaithful ex.

And Lorde and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis both had huge hits with songs about economic woes. In Royals, Lorde described not being able to relate to visions of "gold teeth, Grey Goose, tripping in the bathroom"; the latters' Thrift Shop is about finding a mink coat for "99 cents".

But perhaps that class consciousness was part of what fuelled the ribaldry that otherwise flourished. Even the most adventurous evening in, after all, comes cheaper than a night on the town.

"It's just one of those songs that loosens people up," Pharrell told me over the summer, referring to Blurred Lines, which he co-wrote and produced. "With everybody so anxious about everything going on in the world, people need something to help them be happy again."

In an increasingly oversaturated media environment – one in which Cyrus' every move makes Google News – we also need something to hold our attention.

That might be how we ended up with Timber, which after four weeks at No. 2 is shaping up as one of 2014's first inescapable hits. An ostensibly party-starting duet between Pitbull and Kesha, the song seems at first like a product of the same mind-set that gave us Blurred Lines and Wrecking Ball.

"I have 'em like Miley Cyrus," Pitbull brags over a kind of electro-hoedown groove. "Clothes off, twerking in their bras and thongs."

Unlike last year's durable pop erotica, though, Timber wears out its welcome as soon as you realise that this isn't a song about the excitement of being turned on – it's about utilising a flimsy turn-on to manufacture excitement.

Coupled with recent signs of economic improvement, it could be bad enough to send us tumbling back into wholesomeness. — Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

> The 56th Annual Grammy Awards will be held on Jan 26 (Jan 27 in Malaysia) at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, California.

With so much music being streamed, swapped and downloaded from so many outlets these days, it's valid to ask whether we can arrive at any sort of Grammy consensus.

The nominations for the 56th annual ceremony give us the answer: No. Successfully predicting musical consensus is, more than ever, a fool's game.

Few, for example, would have bet on singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles' The Blessed Unrest, landing an album of the year nomination. Sales have just been so-so, and it dropped out of Billboard's Top 200 album chart recently, only to sneak back in the latest ranking.

Deserved or not – the latter, from this perspective – the album took a slot away from one seeming shoo-in, Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience. The Recording Academy also passed over Kanye West's acclaimed Yeezus and Kacey Musgraves' far more lyrical and way less treacly Same Trailer, Different Park.

Bareilles' December surprise almost seems like a mistake. Other than for the year's Best Album, her new work earned her just one other nomination – pop solo performance for Brave, an aspirational song that borders on propaganda.

Jay-Z received the most Grammy nominations for his album, Magna Carta ... Holy Grail. — EPA

That Bareilles and a few other left-field nominees prevailed over higher-profile artistes in that category serves as a reminder that the 12,000 voting members of the Recording Academy have some pretty Protestant tastes – and that buzz doesn't always matter. If it did, Timberlake would have ruled the nominations and New Zealand singer Lorde would have already been awarded 2014's Best New Artiste.

As it happens Lorde was passed over in the category, even though Royals got nominated in two of the big four, Song Of The Year and Record Of The Year.

Occupying Lorde's should-be spot in the New Artiste category is one of the night's biggest surprises: James Blake, the British singer and electronic music producer who recently won Britain's Mercury Prize.

Unlike Lorde or young electronic dance music chart-buster Avicii (also passed over in the category), Blake didn't make much of a mark on the American charts and got scant commercial radio airplay. But then, in this same category two years ago voters, gave the similarly gentle tones of Bon Iver the Grammy, and last year it awarded it to the harmless Fun, suggesting a new category might be necessary: Best Young Adult Contemporary Album.

Then there's Jay-Z. For many reasons, it's tough to weep for him. After all, he earned the most nominations this year with nine. But his Magna Carta ... Holy Grail, was denied solo nominations in the major categories (though he got one as a contributor on Kendrick Lamar's Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City).

As usual when he releases a record, though, Jay-Z again dominated the rap division, earning five nominations in the four categories.

Harder still, in general, is to cry for West, whose self-proclaimed "genius" didn't earn him respect with Grammy voters this year. Despite the praise for his adventurous Yeezus, West received only two nominations for it: one in Best Rap Album, and another for New Slaves as Best Rap Song.

Kanye haters will no doubt be gunning for him to suffer the ultimate ego buster: losing in both categories to the much-dismissed Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, the upstart rapper-producer team whose seven nominations are among the most for any artistes.

Better to expend your emotions celebrating the assured showing for Lamar, whose rise from mixtape master to toast of the Los Angeles hip-hop scene to master rap provocateur has been as quick as it has been confident. His Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City had been mentioned as a contender for Album Of The Year, but many expected Drake's Nothing Was The Same to occupy that slot.

That rock music was shut out of the major categories – unless you count Imagine Dragons, which I don't – offers evidence of the genre's current lack of heft.

So fragmented and confused is the electorate and so unfocused is rock 'n' roll in 2013 that Led Zeppelin, a band that disbanded more than three decades ago, earned a Best Rock Performance for Kashmir, which was on the soundtrack of their concert film, Celebration Day.

Led Zep, in fact, received as many nominations as Bareilles did. Need any more evidence of the chaos at hand? — Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services